The power of true love!
By Pastor Patrick Feldhus, TLHA Chaplain
I John 4:10- This is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. (EHV)
Today is devoted to the word love. The idea of love and the celebration of it is everywhere we look. You cannot escape from it. But does the world truly understand love? Or maybe we should ask ourselves, do we truly understand love?
So often we look to fulfill a feeling inside us and we call that love. The problem with this definition is that love is inward focused. It seeks to fulfill us. This is why it is so easy for us to say, “I fall in and out of love.” Love based on how we feel will always lead to uncertainty. Imagine if God followed this definition of love? How would we fair if we had to fulfill love for God? We would fail. This is love defined by law. This kind of law will lead to uncertainty and failure. God cannot love us according to this definition.
Thanks be to God that he gives us the true definition of love. It is a love defined by the gospel! God does not base this love on waiting for us to fulfill something in him. God chose to love us first without us doing a thing. He chose sacrificial love by sending his Son to be sacrificed for us. True gospel love must start with God, not us! This is the way we can be certain that God loves us. This is why we can be certain God’s love cannot fail. Jesus is the power behind this love! If you even need to be reminded of God’s love, all you need to do is look at the cross. You did not earn or deserve this love. It was given to you!
Now with this new gift of love, what will we do with it? This love has the power to change the way we see love in our lives. It is no longer about fulfilling something in us but giving love to someone without expecting anything in return. This love is opposite of the world’s love. This is why we can truly love the people in our lives by putting them before us, which even includes our enemies. Through God’s love in Christ, we put the needs of other above our own needs. Let this definition of love be celebrated today and every day!
Dear Father, thank you for showing us your sacrificial love in your Son. Let us hold tightly to this love so that our hearts can then show this love to people in our lives. We ask this though Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.